Chibi Chimeras Make Cute Sons
by NekoEddo
Summary: The lives of the group in Mustang's office are turned upside-down when Havoc finds a young chimera boy that calls himself Ed, will they be able to get him to open up to them fully or will he remain a mystery? Parental!Roy/RizaxEd 6 yr old Ed/14 yr old Al.
1. The Arrival

Ed cowered in front of his father, eyes that were wide in fear downcast and left arm raised in front of him in an attempt to shield his face from the angry blows.

His father was drunk. Again.

A well aimed punch to his gut knocked all of the air out of his lungs and sent the small boy slamming into the wall behind him, which only infuriated his father more.

The punches came harder and faster.

Ed had to hold back a scream as his father used both hands to grab his right arm and bent it.

Backwards.

His vision started going fuzzy as his father repeatedly broke his arm, and soon the blackness overwhelmed him.

When he came to, it was not only his right arm, but also the lower half and knee of his left leg that were home to the searing pain that signified bones that had been repeatedly broken, his chest had a slightly duller ache in that told him that some of his ribs had been broken, but not repeatedly.

The beatings had slowly been getting worse and worse since Ed's older brother Al had run away from home, leaving Ed with nothing but the promise that he would come back for him one day.

Ed cracked his eyes open slightly, not wanting to alert his father to the fact that he had woken up, he was in the middle of a very large, peculiar transmutation circle that he hadn't seen before.

He knew of transmutation circles because he had seen his father use them before, but he had never seen one as large and intricate as this before.

Ed had many cuts and bruises on his body, but the blood from one particular cut under his left eye had caked it shut, so Ed didn't notice as his father chucked a small, golden kitten into the circle and placed his to hands quietly on the very edge of it.

Ed screamed out in shock and pain as the circle activated, his head and lower back felt like they were being torn open and his eyes felt almost like they were on fire.

The blackness overwhelmed him once again.

He woke up a few hours later, and, upon seeing that his father was asleep, decided.

He couldn't be here anymore, his small body just couldn't cope anymore. He felt something behind him twitch, Ed turned around, jumping when he saw a long, golden tail that almost reached his feet swaying behind him.

Ed scowled, that would make running away allot more difficult if he didn't keep it hidden, after considering it for a moment, he decided that it would be least noticeable if he wound it around his waist under his t-shirt.

As he carried on the slow and steady process of crawling to the front door using only two limbs, he felt a twitch similar to the one from his tail come from the top of his head, balancing himself in a kneeling position on his good leg, he reached up to feel the top of his head and gasped quietly when he felt two furry ears.

He carried on with his steady progress to the door, and, using the handle of that closet to haul his small body upright, he grabbed a hat similar to one an old-fashioned paper boy might have used, and jammed it firmly over his new ears, effectively hiding them.

As soon as he was out of the door, he was able to make progress at a much quicker pace than before, because now that he was out of earshot of his father, he wouldn't have to be so quiet, he steadily made his way towards the station as the the early morning sunrise casted golden beams across the fields.

Ed reached the station just as the sun had completely cleared the hill in the horizon, he stood up and hopped over to a bench after buying a ticket to go to central with some money that he had stolen from his father's wallet, unfortunately, central was a fair way away and the ticket had used up all of the money that he had taken.

Ed just sat there for half an hour, getting increasingly more fidgety with every minute that passed.

The young boy was constantly worried that his father would wake up and come searching for him at the train station while he was still there.

Much to Ed's relief, the train came a couple of minutes later and there was still no sign of his father. Ed quickly hopped onto the train and took the nearest free seat to the door that he could find.

Ed spent approximately three days on the train on the way to Central, and the regular meals that had been regularly brought round had fed him better than he had been since his mum had died two years ago.

As the days had worn on, the pain from both the abuse and the transmutation had slowly dimmed and now there was only a dull ache all over his body.

By the time the train arrived at Central, Ed was feeling considerably better than he had at the start of the journey.

He had eaten and gotten a fair bit of much-needed rest, but had kept himself a fair distance from the other passengers, he didn't really feel like interacting with other humans again yet.

Ed waited until the jerk that happened just as the train completely stopped to use the back of the chair he had been sitting on to help him to get up.

He carefully limped his way off of the train only using his leg for balance and not actually putting any weight on it.

He was immediately awestruck by the size of central, let alone the amount of people on the station platform, there were so many that he was getting quite awkwardly pushed to go with the flow of people that were heading out.

Judging from the position of the sun, Ed guessed that it was about midday, that was what his stomach was telling him as well. He gave a small cry as someone roughly shoved his small body out of the way and he painfully collided with the pavement just to the side of the mob of people.

"Hey, kid are you all right?" A tall man with pale ginger hair asked as he offered his hand to Ed to help him up, Ed flinched back and closed his eyes, expecting to be hit by the stranger.

When no blow came he opened his eyes slowly and saw the man still crouched down, hand outstretched.

He slowly moved his right leg underneath him and balanced on it as he placed his small bruised hand in the man's own, large, pale one.

He gritted his teeth as the man pulled him to his feet and caused some of the bruises on his arm to send unnecessary pain signals to his brain.

Havoc noticed that the boy refused to use either right arm or left leg, he noticed the blue and purple bruises that covered the small hand that reached out and took his own, he noticed the boy wince at the effort and movement involved in getting up, and he knew, he knew that something terrible had happened to this small child recently, but he did not know _what_.

He picked the boy up by the waist and noticed that there were more, unseen bruises that were hidden by the clothes he wore.

The small boy tried to resist as Havoc shuffled him around in his arms until he was carrying him princess style, which was surely much more comfortable for both of them.

Ed felt his eyes closing as the rocking sensation that was created by the man carrying him threatened to lull him to sleep, he fought against it for a while, forcing his eyes to open again after each blink and doing his best to imagine what kind of place the strange man was taking him.

Eventually, all the energy that he had left wore out, and the boy slipped into a deep and dreamless sleep.

When he got to headquarters, Havoc used his boot to repeatedly kick at the bottom of the door in attempt to get a sound similar to knocking.

"Can one of you guys open this damned door for me, my hands are a bit full at the moment!" Havoc yelled.

"With what!" Was the reply that came from Fuery before he opened the door.

"Oh god, Havoc, what...?" He let the question trail away as he saw the state of the boy that was lying, unconscious in Havoc's arms.

There was a great big swollen bruise on one side of his face and he had a black eye on the other, his right arm and left leg were bent at impossible angles, he was thin, as though he hadn't eaten properly in weeks, maybe even months.

His clothes were grubby, and, in some places, bloodstained. In short, he was a mess.

The office sat in shocked silence for a moment, all eyes were on the broken boy that lay in Havoc's arms, their brains registering the situation, before all of a sudden leaping into action.

Hawkeye stood up, gun in hand, taking charge.

"Havoc lay that boy on the couch! Fuery, go get the first aid kit! Breda, you get a soft flannel and some warm water! Falman, go see if there are any clean clothes anywhere that might fit the boy, including a replacement hat, the one that he is wearing right now is way too worn out to last that much longer!"

"Yes Ma'am!" was the simultaneous response before each person rushed to do as they were told.

Colonel Mustang's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, how did Lieutenant Hawkeye expect him to do all that paperwork with so much damn noise coming from the other side of the door.

After pondering for a moment, he decided that, seeing as it was impossible to do his paperwork at the moment, and he had nothing better to do, he would go and see what all the ruckus was about.

He was just reaching for the doorknob, when the door slammed open...right into his face. He staggered backwards, clutching his throbbing nose with both hands and glaring at Hawkeye who simply grabbed his wrist and started pulling him out of the room.

"Sir, get over it, it isn't even bleeding." She stated.

"It may not be bleeding but it still hurts Hawkeye!" He argued.

"Well, Sir, I'm sure that whatever pain you're going through right now doesn't even begin to compare to the amount of pain that that boy is going through!" She said as she dragged him over to the couch that the boy was laying on and pointed to him.

Mustang's eyes widened at the sight of the boy. 'He looks like he's just been through a war and back!' was the thought that immediately sprang to his mind.

"Hawkeye! I've got the hot water and flannel!" Called Breda, who was quickly followed by Falman And Fuery with their respective items.

"These were the only clothes that i could find in HQ that looked like they would fit him." Stated Falman as he laid a Long red jacket with a peculiar emblem in black on the back of it, a black t-shirt, and some black cotton trousers on the back of a nearby chair, and balancing a brown hat almost identical to the one the boy was wearing - that was, however, in much better condition than the boy's - precariously on top of the pile of clothes.

"Those will be fine, Falman. Fuery give me those please." She ordered, motioning for the bowl and flannel to be put beside her as she knelt down beside the boy, gently propping him up as she carefully pulled off his t-shirt so that she could get to the bruises and cuts beneath.

There was a collective sharp intake of breath from everyone in the room as they saw that the boy's torso was almost completely purple from the amount of bruises that littered it, and the majority of space that wasn't purple was crusted over with dried blood.

Hawkeye placed the soft white flannel in the hot water, she took it out again as soon as the water had completely covered it, wringing it out thoroughly before placing it on some of the boy's wounds and gently scrubbing the dried blood away.

She worked methodically, starting at the top left corner of the boy's torso and slowly working her way towards herself, and as soon as that line was finished, she would start again just under where she had been working previously, making sure that she didn't miss an inch of it.

She made sure to work extra-carefully around and on the places that the broken ribs were.

Once she had finished his torso, she gently rolled him over to do his back, marginally relieved that it wasn't quite so bad as his front had been, and, once that was done, she went on to do the rest of his body except his head, which she had decided to leave alone for the time being just in-case she accidentally woke him up, she raised an eyebrow when she saw his tail, but kept quiet about it in order to keep is a secret from the others, who had long since gotten bored and decided that staring out of the window was slightly more amusing than what she was doing. By the time she was completely finished, the once-white flannel was a reddish-brown, as was the now-cold water.

"Fuery, go and get me a towel." She ordered upon noticing that the boy was shivering.

Fuery ran out of the room and came back a few moments later with a warm, fluffy towel, quickly handing it to Hawkeye and watching as she gently dried off the shivering boy.

She bandaged him up as best she could and, using a few of bits of spare metal that had been sitting in the corner and Havoc and Fuery's grudgingly handed over belts, she made a makeshift splint for both his arm and leg.

Smiling at her handiwork, she dressed him in the loosely-fitting clothes, glad that they were made of soft material that wouldn't be too irritating for his now-healing skin.

Finally done, she got everyone to return to their paperwork, she also forbade any speaking until the boy was awake again.


	2. The Introductions

Ed woke with his back to everyone in the office, facing the window.

He used his left hand to push himself into a sitting position so that he could get a better view of the sunset which was shining with all of the colours of the rainbow outside.

He felt something brush against his hand repeatedly, making it slightly wet in the places where it had been, he turned his head to see what the source of it was.

When he saw it, he jumped and pushed himself as far back into the sofa as he could, it was a small... monster? Ed didn't know _what _it was, it was small and black, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth, the front of it's head was white and the wet thing had been it's tongue. It had a small, furry...stick maybe? Protruding from it's back and it was waving it around frantically, the thing let out a loud sharp noise and Ed sunk further backwards into the seat, frantically trying to get away from it.

"Black Hayate, come!" A woman's voice rang out through the air, Ed shuffled away from the direction that the sound was coming from, not knowing if this new person would hurt him or not.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, she had blonde hair pulled back in a clip, brown eyes, and, he noticed, the same blue uniform as the man who had helped him earlier had been wearing.

He hoped that this meant that she was friendly. Ed allowed his eyes to roam over the rest of the room, feeling a small amount of relief when he saw the man that had helped him earlier sat at a desk nearby.

"Oh, you're awake." The woman's voice again, Ed turned to face her, golden eyes wide in anxiety, and widening ever so slightly more when he saw the gun resting at her hip, he had seen those used before, they were bad.

He noticed that her eyes were not the only ones that were looking at him now, every pair of eyes was.

Ed shuffled slightly, feeling distinctly unsettled, hating that there were so many people completely focussed on him, trying to block out the thoughts of what they might do to him if they planned to hurt him.

He swung his legs over the edge of the couch, eyes concentrating on the floor, attempting to ignore their unfaltering gazes as he pushed himself into a standing position and hopped over to hide behind the man who had helped him earlier.

"Hey, Havoc, he seems to have taken a liking to you." Said another man who was slightly chubby and had short, black hair.

Ed let his eyes go cold, making sure that they were devoid of any emotion before he stared at the man, unsure as to whether he was a friend or foe.

He jumped and turned his head quickly as he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, it was the woman, she was walking towards him. He clutched tighter on the fabric of the man's... Havoc's, the other person had said, jacket, as she approached, he noticed that she still had the gun, and he tensed, he felt his cat ears flick back and forth in apprehension.

He grit his teeth and closed his eyes as he prepared himself for the pain that was sure to come, flinching at first when she put her hand on his shoulder, but opening his eyes in surprise when he realized that it was a light and gentle touch, and that she had been careful not to over-balance him with her actions.

He saw her eyes gazing at him and he stared back at them questioningly, why hadn't she hurt him, he was small and weak, she was big and healthy, she had no reason that he could see not to hurt him. Unless... he hardly dared to think it but maybe, just maybe, she was one of those people like his mum had been, one of the people that wouldn't lay a hand on you even if you did something _really_ bad.

He hoped that, against all odds, these people were like that.

"How are you feeling?" The woman asked, her voice soft and gentle, making Ed visibly relax.

He averted his eyes and shrugged, not wanting to speak just in case he wasn't supposed to, like at home.

As he thought of home fear gripped his chest, his father would know that he was missing by now, and would most likely be searching for him, furious, if his father found him again there was no telling what he would do to him.

Ed sat down on the floor heavily, tears in his eyes, he wished that Al was here, Al would know what to do, Al would know if he could trust these people.

Hawkeye blinked in shock as the boy suddenly crumpled to the ground and started to cry, she placed a hand his shoulder and drew him into a warm embrace, murmuring words of comfort in his ear.

After the boy had calmed down enough, she gently pulled him out of the embrace and spun him round to face her.

"Are you hungry?" She asked, keeping her voice as gentle and quiet as possible. The boy nodded vigorously, making it evident that he was ravenous.

"In that case do you have anything specific that you would like?" This time, her question was met with an uncertain shake of the head from the boy.

"Fuery go and get some food for him, it doesn't matter what it is as long as it tastes nice and there's lots of it."

"Yes ma'am!" Fuery replied before running off. Deciding that the boy would be more comfortable on the couch, Riza gently placed her hands underneath the boy's arms and lifted him up into her arms, sitting him down next to her and making sure that he was as comfortable as possible before talking again.

"So what's your name?" The boy just ignored her and stared at his feet. "We can't just keep calling you boy, so you'll need to tell us your name, sweetie." The boy's head shot up as soon as she said the word 'sweetie', it was something that his mother had called him often as a sort of nickname, it was probably that word that got him to reply when he did. After waiting a minute, he said in a soft, quiet voice.

"Ed, my name's Ed."

"Ok, then Ed, I'm Riza, that's Falman,"she said pointing to a tall man with grey hair sitting on a chair in the corner, Ed's eyes widened, he hadn't even noticed that man!

"That's Breda," this time pointing to a chubby man with orange hair.

"That's Havoc, he's the one who helped you," Ed simply nodded at this and stared at Havoc for a few seconds before looking back at Riza again.

"The one who went to go and get you some food is Fuery," Ed nodded again.

"And there is one other person, who is tall and has black hair, his name is Colonel Mustang, and you have to be respectful to him because he is our superior, Ok?" Ed nodded, his attention quickly shifting to the door as it opened.

"I've got the food." Fuery announced, slightly unnerved at the fact that everyone was now looking at him. He quickly walked over to the boy and placed the food next to him.

"Eat as much as you want, Ok?" He said, the boy nodded and picked up one of the small takeaway boxes that were piled up next to him, he found the plastic fork that came with the meal and, after ripping off the lid of the box, began to eat at an alarming rate.

Twenty minutes later he was full, and all of the boxes had been emptied.

Everyone in the office was quite surprised at the boys appetite, but nonetheless, they were happy that he was eating properly.

Havoc, Fuery and Breda all began talking to Ed about anything and everything, Ed listened to every word intently and decided that they were nice people.

Just as he was getting relaxed and beginning to join in with the conversation though, the door slammed open, causing him to jump violently and fall over the arm of the sofa and onto the floor. His face contorted in pain, and Riza rushed over to pick him up and help him back onto the sofa, this time she made sure she place him in the middle.

She then turned to whichever poor soul that had dared to scare the boy like that, hand twitching by the gun at her side, the most evil of glares fixated upon her face.

Mustang - as that was who had been at the door- froze, Hawkeye had an expression on that he had never seen before, and, quite frankly, it scared the hell out of him. He noticed the boy sitting on the couch staring at him.

"Oh you're awake!" He said, staring back at the boy.

"Of course he's awake, Sir! You just scared him so much that he fell off the sofa!" Riza hissed.

"I did?" The look of shock on the Colonel's face was genuine, but that only served to frustrate Hawkeye even more.

"Yes, you did! Now are you going to apologize to him or am I going to have to make you!" Riza almost yelled, hand closer than ever to her gun.

Luckily, Mustang noticed this and made a hasty apology to the already confused boy.

As far as he could make out, this was the 'Colonel Mustang' That Riza had talked about, but she had said that he was her superior and that we had to be respectful to him, so why was she shouting at him?

He looked at the man, eyes narrowing into a glare, maybe he was an impostor and that was why he was being yelled at.

Roy was surprised when the boy's curious stare turned into a glare, if he was going to glare at him for making him fall off the sofa, then he should have been doing it since he came in the room, not start suddenly a few minutes later.

Riza turned around to check that Ed was ok and she too noticed the glare on the young boy's face.

"Ed sweetie, this is Colonel Mustang, our superior that i was telling you about earlier." she said, a gentle smile on her face as she gestured towards the man by the door.

Ed's eyes softened a bit but the suspicion still stayed there, he went back to his conversation with the other occupants of the room and decided to ignore 'The Colonel' for now.

But, as time went on, he found it harder and harder to keep the curious thoughts about the strange man at bay.


	3. The Temporary Adoption

Ed yawned, his eyes drooping and the haziness in his mind threatening to send him into the silent world of unconsciousness.

The occupants of the office had long since been forced to go back to their paperwork by the lady... Riza. And since then he had been subject to the cruel torture of boredom.

Ed gave a small sigh as he moved yet another chess piece into the wrong place on the board and rubbed at his eyes with his left hand.

He scowled at the piece which he had just placed and, his temper and tiredness finally coming to play, he deepened his scowl and swept his good arm across the board, knocking all of the pieces to the floor with a loud crash. Once he realized what he had done he froze. 'No.' he thought 'no, i didn't mean to do that' his eyes widened in fear as a shadow fell across him, indicating the presence of one of the offices occupants looming over him.

'Please, please say that they won't hurt me, I don't think that I can take it right now.' His wide eyes now brimmed with tears that he fought to keep back, crying would only make them angrier.

He flinched as he felt an arm wrap around him, but found himself subconsciously relaxing into the hug once he had realized that it was not intended to hurt him... yet.

'No!' he thought to himself, 'stop it! It's probably just a trick to make me relax before they really do hurt me!' Ed felt himself beginning to panic again and tried desperately to control his body, which was now shaking violently.

He bit his lip to stop himself from crying again, but recoiled slightly when he tasted blood, he hadn't meant to bite that hard.

He heard a soothing voice, Riza's, and felt light circles being rubbed on his bruised back, soothing him slightly.

His tears flowed freely now and his small body wracked with sobs, he had reached his breaking point and now all of the sadness and mistrust that had been building up was showing as warm tears made tracks down his small face.

On that quiet evening a small boy cried himself to sleep.

Roy watched the boy as he slept, salty tear tracks that had dried up were clearly visible on his bruised face and gave the boy an air of melancholy even as he slept.

He sighed and tore his eyes off of the boy as he turned back to his now greatly-diminished pile of paperwork and set to work signing the last few sheets of it.

Once he had finished, Roy leaned back in his chair with his fingers interlaced behind his head, he once again found his eyes wandering towards the sleeping form on the couch and could not help but worry about the kind of abuse that the poor boy must have been put through.

He jumped as Riza walked in the door, unused to her not knocking first, he briefly wondered why but his logical side of his brain quickly reminded him of the child that was currently asleep in his office. He looked up at Hawkeye, his eyes questioning what she needed.

"We need to take him to a doctor, Roy." she stated quietly, but in such a tone that she left no room for argument. "Today." Roy looked at her, understanding the urgency of the matter and nodded in agreement.

"Where will he be staying?" He asked, the question having just occurred to him.

"Since the others all live in the dorms and Hughes has his own family to take care of, I believe that the most logical solution would be to have him stay at our house, Roy." She said calmly, but the twinkle of excitement in her eyes did not go unnoticed.

Roy sighed reluctantly, and, putting on a calm face, agreed.

He shortly after decided that it had been well worth it to utter that one word as the most genuine smile he had ever seen broke out on his wife's face. [1] "Shall we take him there now then?" He asked.

The other occupants of the office had already finished their work for the day and left, so there was nothing to keep them in the office any longer.

Riza agreed and gently picked the boy up from the couch so as not to wake him. She shifted him into a comfortable position as Roy gathered his stuff and they quickly made their way down to their car.

Riza decided that, even with a seatbelt, the boy would not be able to sit upright and having the seatbelt across him would only serve to agitate his wounds more, so she opted that Roy would drive and she would sit in the passengers seat and hold Edward on her lap.

The drive to the hospital took over half an hour, but, from there it was only a five minute drive back to their house.

Roy and Riza sat impatiently in the waiting room as the doctors checked the extent of the boy's injuries. Riza had taken one of the doctors to the side before they had started and had warned him about Ed's being a chimera, and had asked him to keep it a secret from anyone who wouldn't be checking the boy.

She had shortly after informed Roy of his... condition. An hour or so later, the doctor returned with a clipboard that held a piece of paper containing the information on the extent of Edward's injuries. He read them out.

"The bones in both his right arm and left leg have been broken beyond repair, and said limbs will have to be amputated in the near future to stop the shards of bone damaging his body more than it already is.

He has slight internal bleeding around his solar plexus, but it is not life-threatening and has been dealt with. He has a severe concussion and three broken ribs and two fractured.

The multiple cuts and bruises on his body should heal fine within a few months, many of the worse ones will scar but there should be no further physical problems than that from those particular wounds.

And, I am glad to say, although it is clear that there had been plenty of physical abuse done to this boy, there are no traces whatsoever of sexual abuse."

Although the extent of his injuries had shocked them both and they were devastated that he would have to have two of his limbs taken from him, Roy and Riza both visibly relaxed at the doctors last statement, he was much more likely to recover mentally having only had physical abuse done to him.

Ed felt a wave of pain wash over him as his mind struggled back into consciousness, it was nothing that he couldn't handle but it was still unpleasant. He felt his cat ears twitch as they picked up the sound of voices nearby.

He cracked open his eyes, searching for the sources of the sound, but had to quickly shut them again as a bright white light dazzled his overly-sensitive eyes.

He waited a few moments before opening them again, this time fully, and looked around him.

The room he was in was completely white, from the walls and ceiling to the sheets of the bed that he was currently laid in.

Wait a minute. He was in a bed.

He shivered and squeezed his eyes shut as his brain began to supply images of what his father would do to him when he found out that he had slept in a bed.

There was no _if _ about whether or not his father would find out.

He would know, he always knew _everything_.

Riza stopped taking to Roy for a second to check on Ed. She saw him shaking with his fists clenched and his eyes squeezed shut and quickly went to his side.

Roy followed he shortly after and she laid her hand on the boys good arm gently, using the other to stroke his bangs out of his face.

Roy went round to Ed's other side and knelt down, folding his arms on top of the bed.

* * *

[1] Yes, Roy and Riza are married in this, i'm sorry anyone who does not like this but I really wanted them both to look after Ed, and yes, for some strange reason, Riza's second name is still Hawkeye, don't ask why because I have no idea.

I have redone all of the chapters so that those with worse eyesight can read them easier, there are no other changes to the chapters than that.


	4. Kindness

**Hello everybody! I'm so sorry I've been gone for so long, and with so little explanation too, however, I am back! And I have a chapter on each one of my stories to help get those of you going through exams to brave it out!**

** I'm sorry to say this, but the movie got abandoned, so no links :( I haven't updated in so long because of a mixture of reasons, but the largest one is definitely that I am now in college a year early, and I have my work cut out for me keeping up with everything! As well as that I have had the most massive writer's block on every one of my stories, and completely lost my muse. I just couldn't bring myself to work on any of them. I am very sorry to have left you all so in the dark, and to have not updated for so long, but finally I have managed to produce something :)**

** I know they aren't the best reasons, but they are big to me, and I hope you can all forgive me for my long absence. Updates on stories from now on will be infrequent, as I have a busy summer lined up, and when I am in college it takes up pretty much all of my time, but I will be updating, and I'll do my best to whenever I have the time :)**

* * *

Ed trembled as he felt someone put their hand on his arm, and another person brush his bangs out of his face. He looked up, forgetting about having met the nice people earlier, and then remembered when he saw Riza and Mustang's faces peering worriedly down at him. He could hear them speaking soft, soothing words, but it only just registered in the back of his mind. He shouldn't be in a bed, he shouldn't be in a bed, he shouldn't be in a bed! Ed's fear of his father compelled him to do his best to launch himself off the bed as well as he could with only one arm, in an attempt to get away from what he wasn't supposed to be on. He only managed to get a violent twitch that was quickly followed by a searing wave of pain. His face contorted, but he quickly tried to make himself emotionless, knowing that if his father was here, he would only be angered more by his son's expressions.

Something niggled at the edge of Ed's mind, and, as he looked around, he realized that there was no point in trying to hide his pain - as far as he knew at least - because he had left his father and his old life of abuse behind. Even if he had to live on the streets, he was sure that he would manage to get by, he was sure that it would be better than living with his dad. He was sure... wasn't he? He looked once again at the two nice people that he was already beginning to trust -Ed was mentally beating himself up for this, he knew that if he began to trust people even a little bit, then he would only get hurt because of it - but he just couldn't help but trust them. He didn't know what it was, and if he was perfectly truthful about it, he was more than a little scared.

Ed forced himself to relax again as Riza came and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, he felt his eyes well up with unshed tears, he didn't want to leave these people, but to his mind, he only knew what his father had told him. That no-one would ever want or love a deformed creature like him. It was a thought that, if he was alone, would cause him to cry for hours on end until he had no tears left to shed. He looked up at Riza in shock as he took his hand and gently began to help him out of the bed, he looked down at his arm and leg, and was surprised to see them in real casts, keeping them straight and limiting his use of the injured limbs even more. He didn't mind though, it stopped them from hurting as much. He allowed himself to be lowered from the bed, and into a sitting position in a wheelchair.

Ed stared at Riza, confusion in his eyes as she began to wheel him gently out of the door and down the hall, heading to an unknown destination. "Sweetie..." She began, looking Ed in the eyes. "Roy and I have been talking and... since you have nowhere else to go, if it is ok with you, we will take care you for the time being." Ed's eyes widened, his fathers definition of 'look after' was not a pleasant one, and brought back painful memories along with a cold and unforgiving wave of fear. His ears flattened themselves against his head and his tail curled itself around his leg protectively. "Take...care?" he squeaked fearfully, quickly clapping his left hand over his mouth as he did so, ignoring the pain that the simple action had brought. He had spoken without permission!

Ed's ears flattened themselves even further against his head and his tail tensed in raw fear. He began to shake, and looked up at Riza fearfully. She merely smiled kindly at him and continued pushing him down the hall. Ed averted his gaze, confused. Why didn't she punish him for anything? Ever since he had left his father he had been doing things that were bad... so why wasn't he being punished? Why was she being so... nice?

He sighed quietly, knowing that thoughts like these would get him nowhere, and began to wonder where he was going. But those thoughts only led him back to when Riza had said that she and Roy would 'take care of him'. He shuddered a little, but as he did so a memory tweaked at the edge of his conscience.

He let the memory play.

_Ed was ill. He had a fever that was making his temperature unbearable and he was throwing up every five minutes or so, or at least, he would have been if there had been anything left in his stomach. But now he was just dry-heaving. His mother patted his back comfortingly as he retched. 'Don't worry sweetie' she said in a soothing tone. 'I'll take care of you.'_

Ed brought himself out of the memory and back to the thoughts that he had been puzzling over. Maybe it wasn't all a facade to fool him into trusting them. Maybe they genuinely were kind people... like his mother had been. Maybe they meant take care of the way that his mother did, not his father. Maybe... maybe he was finally having a streak of good luck.

And, as scared as he was that he was wrong, Ed couldn't help but revel in the knowledge that his luck might finally be turning. He fell asleep with a smile on his face as Riza wheeled him to the car.


End file.
